FBI Director James Comey said that people should be covering up the webcams on their laptops to prevent someone from authorizing the webcam without permission. Comey said that it's standard practice in government buildings to cover the webcams, and that ordinary citizens should be taking this precaution as well.
“There’s some sensible things you should be doing, and that’s one of them,” Comey said regarding webcam covers. “You go into any government office and we all have the little camera things that sit on top of the screen. They all have a little lid that closes down on them. You do that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s a good thing.”
Hackers could access the webcam to gain information about an environment or possibly to blackmail the computer user.
In 2010, a school district settled with students after it was revealed that the school was using the built-in webcams to spy on students outside of school.
It's a scary world out there--and privacy can be violated in the most creative of fashions. Disgusting.